1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to devices for dressing a lawn. In particular, the present invention is a device for modifying the contours of a lawn by removing high spots and raising low spots in the lawn, to the extent desired and in a gradual but effective way.
2. Discussion of Background
When establishing a lawn, it is desirable to have either a flat lawn or a lawn that is not uneven but has gentle contours that will not result in excessive erosion during a heavy rain. Sometimes, a lawn is "dressed"; that is, the objectionable degree of unevenness in the lawn contours is removed by raking or scraping the dirt that forms the "spots", where the lawn has a small, local ridge or mound, to the "low spots", ruts or small local depressions in the surface of the lawn.
In addition to hand rakes, there are several devices that can be used to dress a lawn. See, for example, the devices of Kleinhuizen in U.S. Pat. No. 4,886,124; Smith, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,196,788; Mork, in U.S. Pat. No. 3,556,228; Rosselot, in U.S. Pat. No. 2,983,060; and Roberts, et al., in U.S. Pat. No. 1,530,329. Most of these have one or more scraping bars mounted to a frame that engage the dirt of the high spots head on and, of necessity, with considerable force. The last of these, the device of Roberts, et al. is a flexible mat made of interlocked metal elements for dragging across a lawn.
None of the prior art devices applies a reasonable amount of force for dressing a lawn so that small amounts of dirt are effectively shifted from high spots to low without damage to the basic contours.